Sorting Winter Gloves in Summer

A while back, Hannah decided to pull out all the winter gloves and mittens and sort them.

It was quite the task. We threw a few bad ones away, and stored the rest in a box in the basement for next winter.

And we kept a few upstairs to use for working in the garden and around the house.

Gloves are great for working in the dirt--

and leather ones keep you from getting splinters. 

And sorting them helps manage them.

Sometimes thoughts and ideas pile up like winter gloves.

They become an unmanageable jumble in your mind.

Some are useful, some aren't.

We don't have to keep all our thoughts around. Some thoughts just plain have holes in them and need to be rejected and thrown away.
Some are just plain worn out from much wear. We need to think new thoughts!

Others need to be stored in the basement of your mind, where you can find them in time of need.

I read once that Corrie ten Boom kept a notebook to jot down catchy phrases she heard from others in order to share them with others and in her messages
because short clips and catchy phrases will stick and you will remember them.

Clips like--
"Being family is determined more by behavior than blood."
"Pick your battles. Accept people for who they are or who they are not. It's OK to love from a distance."

"Just because some people are fueled by drama does not mean you have to attend the performance."

"Sometimes it seems that the louder a person claims sainthood, the bigger the horns they are hiding."

"Remember to take care of yourself. You can't pour from an empty cup."

It's good to sort your gloves out in the summer, so that they will be matched, organized and ready for use in the winter.
And sometimes we have to sort out our thoughts in a quiet time with God
so that we can meet life's challenges and be armed with truth rather than lies,
so that we can be protected from the cold shoulders and the icy stares and the dirt that is smeared on us, and the splinters and hurts that poke right into our skin and sit there to annoy us and drive us crazy.

Lord, help me as I sort out my thoughts today. Show me which ones coming to my mind that I need to reject. Show me the holes in them, the lies, the inconsistencies. Teach me to throw those out.
Show me the thoughts and ideas that I need to store until later, how to jot down a to-do list of duties that come to mind so that I can focus on one thing at a time and be reminded later of the next thing;
how to write out dreams and goals so that I can see the big picture while taking care of the myriad details of daily responsibilities.

And show me the thoughts that I need to match with your truth and promises.
For my left hand glove of worry, match it with Your right hand glove of peace.
My glove of fear match with Your promises.
My glove of distress match with your faithfulness.
My glove of question, match with a Scriptural answer.
My glove of hurt match with Your healing.
My glove of weakness match with Your strength.
My glove of mistake or sin or falling short in any way match with Your pardon and cleansing.
My glove of desire match with Your will!
Amen.

When God Meets You Under the Clothesline

This morning God met me under the clothesline.

 It's one place I can go by myself and be alone with God--away from the constant activity and noise indoors. And today, as usual, I was talking to Him. 

Not many words. Just a few questions.

 I was feeling bad for a stuck place that I was seeing in my life.

Why couldn't I have overcome in that area? Why couldn't I have handled this worry better?

Why do I keep doing this kind of dumb thing?

There I was under the clothesline, hanging up Indus Kitchen shirts and towels.

And asking, "Jesus,why did I do that?"

Some people always have a pat answer to anything wrong in your life, like, "You aren't really saved," or "You're not really sanctified," mostly because it gets them off the hook of going any deeper than pat answers and fun cliches that put other people in a deep pit of despair while they can prance around the top of the pit feeling spiritually superior. 

I felt He told me, "You didn't trust Me," and I started to go down. Not trusting God is bad, and He'll probably punish me big time. I deserve to be really punished for that.

God needs to beat me up and make me feel really horrible. I need to suffer a really bad consequence.

Instead of letting myself feel terrible, and condemning myself and punishing myself, and wondering how awful the consequence would be, I kept asking questions like I learned to do at Caring for the Heart. I asked a second question there under the clotheslines.

"Jesus, why didn't I trust You?"

And then I was just quiet. I just was standing there hanging clothes, and pulling more clothes out of the basket when something totally unexpected happened.

I was surprised by peace.

It was a total shock. I had done something dumb all over again because I had worried and I hadn't trusted God. And when I went to ask Jesus about it,
He gave me peace.

I didn't deserve peace, but He gave it to  me.
And with it came the words, "He is for you."
I had kind of forgotten.
God really is for me, not against me. He isn't waiting around to bop me over the head and whale me with a cat-o'-nine-tails for my lack of trust in those moments.
He wants to remind me that He cares for my worries.
He wants to carry my burdens.
He wants me to serve Him in restful joy.
He wants me to win.

I came inside, still startled at this beautiful peace, which suddenly turned into unexpected joy. I couldn't believe the joy. I hadn't even said I was sorry for not trusting God. I had just believed Him when He whispered that was why I had done this dumb thing.
And I had just come to Him for answers and help.

Saying sorry helps a little.
Asking, "Why did I do that?" and waiting for an answer helps a lot.
He showed me I need to remember that He is for me.

 He needs me to remember He has promised to take care of me, my reputation and everything precious to me.
Like this baby bunny that one of the children put with the kittens and our mama kitty sheltered with her paw, I can rest under the arms and eyes of God.

There had been undeserved peace.
There had been unexpected joy.
Now there was unutterable love.

 "Jesus, I can't tell You  how much I love You!"

"My Name is Anna, Too."

One day a while back, we met a really sweet couple who take care of a house property that has been turned into a house church with about 40 people attending. After visiting a while, she asked my name, and I told her, "Anna."
"Same as mine," she said quietly.

There wasn't any particular surprise or excitement in her quiet response.
Just observing that we had the same name.
I wonder how many Anna's there are in the world.
There was a young Anna sitting right next to us at the Good Samaritan appreciation dinner I wrote about a few days ago. I am sure there are many others. How does God keep us all straight?
How does He manage to send needed grace and help to the right one at the right time?
It was interesting talking to this couple. They showed us the house church and talked about the property. The man told Jonathan and the children about the huge catfish that lives underneath the water lilies.

 He told us that the coolest place on the property was under the willow across the pond, because of the way the winds turned through the trees and over the water. He would stand there on hot days to cool off while he was mowing and taking care of the place.

This other Anna showed us through the second story of the house where they worship, and how it was set up with nice padded chairs on both sides of an L-shaped living area, with the pulpit and sacrament table set up diagonally in the corner. She said that some of the people love to sit during worship and enjoy the view of the pond and wildlife out the windows! I had just gotten this photo of geese, a wild turkey, and a deer all in the same snapshot! The couple asked me for a copy of the photo.

It was as we were about to leave that the lady asked my name, and I said, "Anna."
"Same as mine," she said.

Then Jonathan, who had been visiting with her husband, said, "She's also the second oldest of nine children!" (As am I!) So I had to get a picture with her!

She had been raised in the Missouri Ozarks, but she and her husband pastored in Maine for a number of years, and then moved to Colorado where he worked at Focus on the Family and she at a Bible College.

I enjoyed so much getting to see where a church group was meeting in a sort of out-of-the-box way,

more like in eastern Europe where we spent years with people who often worshiped in schools or homes for the simple fact that they had no church in which to worship.

There were 40 people in that house church. There were 42 up at Denver where we worshipped a couple weeks ago. Nearly 200 at campmeeting Sunday morning and perhaps around 50-75 or more Sunday evening at tent meeting. How does God keep us all straight?
How does He know just when to send peace when a troubled Anna [or Hannah or Joanna or Susanna or Ann or Annette or Anne or Stan or  Dan or Peter Pan] comes to Him?
How does He not only know our name, but He knows exactly which Anna we are of the millions of them in the world?

He cares about our name. He cares about our reputation. He cares about what others are saying about us and about the true things and about the false things and about the stupid only half true things. He cares about our burdens and distresses. He cares about our needs and our desires and our limitations and our humanity.

"He knoweth our frame,"

He knoweth our name.

He is the One Who "gives strength to His people," whatever their name.

And He will bless His people with peace.

Putting Meat in the Freezer--Do You Need Meat or Milk?

A few weeks ago we put up our steer into our freezers.

It was quite the family affair.

For lunch we had FRESH hamburgers! They were sooo good!

Good, home-raised, grass-fed red meat full of iron and minerals helps me feel better.

Better than just drinking milk.

In the Bible, Paul lamented that the Hebrews were having to be fed milk all over again instead of good meat. They were having to be taught again the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ instead of growing up and maturing into adult Christians, able to discern between good and evil.

Bro. Paul Kaufman shared last week in tent meeting about the difference between purity and maturity and how church leaders and older Christians should not expect young people to get up from the altar and suddenly act like older, seasoned adult Christians.

Dr. Kaufman said that it takes time and experience to grow young people into the seasoned adult Christians that they need to be later in life.

(Thanks, Bro. Kaufman, for being real and honest about that, and for recognizing the value of time, growth, experiences, mistakes, and perseveravce rather than putting all the emphasis on a single experience or a first or second work of grace.)

I knew what he was talking about. I know that I had very real salvation and entire consecration experiences,but boy, have I ever had to go through a lot of hard knocks to learn what it means to be and to act in mature, Christlike ways.

I'm still reading and appreciating and learning from books like Changes that Heal by Henry Cloud, and Boundaries by the same author and John Townsend.

(Here we're eating in the living room since the kitchen table is full of meat mess.)

Paul in the Bible wrote, "But solid food [meat] belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." (Heb. 5:14)

Ever wondered why God has allowed so many things in your life that were difficult?

He wanted your  spiritual senses exercised until you can wisely discern between good and evil.

He wants you to be wise, and be able to become a wise teacher of others to help them on their way to God.

He wants you to mature, and not to remain a baby or a small child spiritually, but to understand the things of God, and to grow in understanding Him and His desires for you, as well as to learn to avoid the appearance of evil, or anything that would lead to evil. 

He wants you to know your boundaries, your limits of time, energy, and love, so that you can be at your best for God in what He wants of you, and not necessarily fulfilling everything that everybody else expects of you.

He wants you to respect those boundaries and limits in others as well, to accept their "No's, when they are unable to perform to your expectations.
In these pictures, we are enjoying the fellowship picnic two Sundays ago up at Denver when the Allegheny Wesleyan College quartet was there with the Sanders family.

There were about 42 people in attendance that morning! Quite a number of visitors and children. 

Pray for us this week as our family goes up there as many days as possible to help with the VBS Tuesday through Sunday.

After Paul urged the Hebrews to leave the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ behind and to move on to perfection, he says, "But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you...

do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

So the best way to grow and mature is to get busy for Jesus and allow ourselves time and grace for spiritual growth in HIM.

Paul and Pearl Kaufman for Dinner

 Last week, one of my favorite Bible college professors from Allegheny Wesleyan College, posted on Facebook that he and his wife had arrived in Colorado Springs a few days early before tent meeting. Jonathan and I decided to invite them to our place, and they were so kind to actually come!

 It was a pretty long trip for them, and they couldn't stay long, but it meant so much to us for them to take time to come and spend supper time with us. I used to so enjoy Bro. Kaufman's Bible classes at AWC. I especially remember the class on Jeremiah. (I'm reading Jeremiah now.) I remember having to write an essay on some topic in the book of Jeremiah for the class.

 Sis. Pearl Kaufman quickly made friends with the girls, admiring Hannah's scrubbie she was knitting. She asked Rose to show her how to do the "purl" stitch in knitting, so Rose was happy to show "Pearl" how to "purl."

It means so much to  me for an older lady like this, who is married to such a well-known and well-educated husband, to yet take time with my girls, and just value them like that.  

 Bro. Paul Kaufman kept Jonathan regaled with many stories, and at the supper table told us about the trips to Israel that he has been involved in for many years. How Jonathan and I would love to travel to Israel next year for our silver wedding anniversary!

 We were able to get in to one service of tent meeting so far, but our children have also wanted to attend some at the Bible Missionary Campmeeting, which unfortunately overlaps the tent meeting.

Here is the tabernacle for the Bible Missionary campmeeting, tucked back into the trees in a very lovely spot near Elizabeth, Colorado.

Sunday we attended services there, and really appreciated getting to know some of the folk there. There must have been around 200 conservative holiness folk there. This was the beginning of the missionary service in the afternoon,where a missionary from Guyana spoke.

 While standing in line for lunch, we got acquainted with the Norwoods, a young family with 8 children from Wyoming. What a beautiful family! And then we sat across from a young couple by the last name of Johnson. He said he was the nephew of Gerald and Roanna Bustin, and he is also closely related to Rebekah Stence. His wife is second oldest of 10 children! 

 The young people sang a special song in the afternoon service. We so appreciated the good group of young people. Last night, the young people sang again.There must have been at least 35 teenagers in the service last night. There are a lot of young couples at this campmeeting, and middle aged, along with older folk.

Our children have been making friends, and Gary and Becky Hunts' girls are there this weekend, too. 

It has been a VERY busy week. Last Saturday Jonathan and I were able to spend a little time with Kenn and Carol Lefever before both of us couples headed to Kenn's aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary.

 Dave and Enid Beitzel were celebrating their 50th anniversary. Lots of old acquaintances there.

 Then Thursday we had been invited to an appreciation dinner for members of Good Samaritan Ministries, a health care sharing ministry we have been part of since we came home from Ukraine, or about 18 years. 

It was at the Hotel Elegante in Colorado Springs. And it was elegant!

 It was probably the first really formal dinner Rose and Sam had ever been to. (The other children didn't want to go, and some of them went to pick up Crystal at the airport.) I was having to clue Rose in on how to operate at a formal dinner. 

Napkin on lap. Don't hold your knife like that. 

Which of these THREE forks do you use to eat the salad?? Make your best guess.

 It was a delightful meal, followed by this luscious cheesecake. BEST one I ever tasted. Cheesecake is on the menu sometime in our near (or far) future. 

Afterward, there were different brief speakers.

 CEO of Good Samaritan spoke a bit.

 State Senator Kevin Lundberg talked about how he is working in the government to preserve the ability of health care ministries like this one to flourish and to be accessed by Christians as an option to health insurance.  Every year we can count off our taxes the amount we share each month with other Christians for their medical needs through Good Samaritan. Right now for our family it is about $495 a month, to be part of this health care sharing ministry so we don't have to pay exorbitant amounts of health insurance. We are so grateful for a state senator who cares about Christians.

Afterward, we spent a while talking to a new friend we made at the table, and while we were talking, Good Samaritan staff were going around handing these bouquets to different ladies. Then just as we were about to leave, I was handed another table bouquet! Also every couple was given a lovely pack of cards to send each month to our assigned medical need.

It was truly a beautiful occasion sandwiched in between a lot of messy work! Right afterward, Jonathan and I had to go to Lowes to pick up a new dishwasher for a place Jonathan had remodeled for selling. A home inspector had turned on the old dishwasher and it flooded in the kitchen!

Jonathan and I carried in the new one and toted the old one out. He worked on it while I cleaned up mess under the sink and wiped up water off the floor.

 We didn't get home till nearly 11:30, so we were late enough that I was still up when Crystal arrived safely home from Africa, with Carrie and Elisa and Hannah who had gone to the airport!

Here are a few thoughts from the Bible and John Piper about ministry:

“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:24)

"According to the New Testament, 'ministry' is what all Christians do. According to Ephesians 4:11–12, pastors have the job of equipping the saints for the work of ministry. But ordinary Christians are the ones who do the ministry.

What ministry looks like is as varied as Christians are varied. It’s not an office like elder or deacon; it’s a lifestyle devoted to making much of Christ and meeting the needs of others."

 ****************

 After being to one tent meeting or camp meeting service after another, and being exhorted about our spiritual life and service to others, it is sometimes hard to come home and

just

clean house and cook meals and wash dishes--and clean up spills in the cabinet.

Just hang laundry and listen to a daughter tell about African adventures and insist on obedience from younger children, and delegate jobs and read bedtime stories and spend time teaching your little girl to sew.

Just watering flowers and garden and trees and cleaning up behind a puppy that accidentally swallowed a sewing pin and has to be minded closely for a couple days.

Lord, what if I just stayed one night late to pray for myself and for others at one of the services, and the rest of the time, I'm just a mom?

Just a common, ordinary mom that gets tired and distressed easily about not being spiritual enough?

What if You  just wanted me to go to bed?

I think that is where I will go right now.

Thank You, Jesus.

Amen.